Method of and apparatus for the manufacture of bearings



June 26, 1934. w KLQCKE 1,964,584

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BEARINGS Filed May 1619:50

2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. MAL/4M /7. /fl oc/ff Y iagy lmd/hrfay ATTORNEYJ'.

Patented June 26, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD OF ANDAPPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BEARINGS William H. Klocke, Woodhaven,N. Y., assignor to The Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company, Cleveland,Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application May 16, 1930, Serial No. 453,049

11 Claims.

with every operation of the die plunger a bearing is produced.

A still further object is to utilize a movable mandrel in conjunctionwith and as a part of the bed of the die. In securing these objects Ihave aimed to provide in such a machine a construction which will besimple, expeditious in operation and which will perform all its severalfunctions automatically and continuously on any length of strip stockapplied to the machine.

The die apparatus disclosed herein is an improvement upon the apparatusand methods which form the subject matter of two of my copendingapplications entitled Method of malting sheet metal bearings, Serial No.316,472 Patout No. 1,787,255 patented December 30, 1930 and Bearings",Serial 327,723." In both of these prior applications the movablemandrel, which 86 assists in the final forming of my hearing,necesdescribed above is the provisionof a mandrel 'to assist in thefinal forming, so that such mandrei doesnot interfere with the normaloperation of the reciprocating die. This problem was rendered more acuteby the fact that a closed cylinder is being produced, which necessitatessliding the blank on and 0s, and this sliding precluded the supportingof the mandrel eitherfrom above or below. These difiiculties have beenovercome by my novel apparatus in a man--- ner to be more fullydescribed later.

The annexed drawings and the following description set forth in detailone method and certain mechanism embodying the invention, such disclosedmethod and means constituting,

however, but one of various mechanical forms in which the principle ofused.

In said annexed drawings:-

Fig. 1 is aplan view of the strip of said stock the invention may beshowing each of the several operations performed C3 thereon; Fig. 2 is aside elevation of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a section through the blanking dies;Fig. 4 is a partial section through the edge bending dies. taken on line4-4; Fig. 5 is a partial section through the second set of bending dies05 taken on line 5-5; Fig. 6 is a section through the final forming dieshowing the mandrel in end elevation; Fig. 7 is a perspective view of mycompleted article; Fig. 8 isa side elevation of the complete mechanismwith parts in and Fig. 9 is an end elevation of Fig. 8.

In Fig. 1, there is illustrated a strip of stock material having theblanked out portion 2 and the successive stages of forming the bearing.

section;

The numeral 3 illustrates thesheared and blanked out portion havingits'edges bent, while 4 indicates the blank in its substantiallyelliptical form, and 5 shows the bearing in its completed state. Aninspection of Fig. 3 will reveal the blanking dies 29 and 30 which shearthe ends of the strip 1 down to the size shown at 2, by means of theshearing edges 6 and 7 on the upper die or punch 30. In Fig. 4 thesecond step of forming the bearing is shown in which 12 and 13 are theco-acting dies which form the'blanked strip 2 into the shape 3 by meansof the beveled faces 8 and 9, which first push the edges downwardly.Immediately thereafter the curved faces 10 and 11 round off the edges sothat subsequent bending will tend to produce a shell of closed annularshape. I

In Fig. 5 the second forming die is illustrated, f in which the blank 3is bent around the substantially elliptical member 19, first by means ofthe beveled faces 14 and 15 and then by means 9.5

of the curved faces 16 and 17, which are located on the upper or plungerdie .18. It will be obvious from an inspection of this figure that thebeveledfaces push the outer extremities of the blank downwardly, andthat the curved faces force the metal down and underv the ellipticalmember 19. The advantage of double faced die pressing, as shown in thispart of the operation, is that a more gradual bending occurs than if abending does not lessen the strength of the metal. A single faced diewould abruptly bend the metal, which might cause a weakening of themetal along the line of bend.

.single faced die were used, and this gradual Thenext operation is showninFig. 6, wherein the strip has been moved the width of a bearing andthe co-actingdies 22 and 23 are shown on the up stroke after havingforced the metal 5 around the mandrel 21 by means of the semicirculardies 20 and 31. From an inspection of Fig. 6 it will now be seen thatthe cylindrical blank has been forced downwardly and is seated upon thelower die 31. Obviously, when the blank 5 is forced downwardly thisportion is severed from the remainder of the blank because the uppersmall connecting portion 40. between the blanks 4 and 5 is moved out ofthe plane of the upper portion of the blank 4.

The complete die mechanism is shown in elevation in Fig. 8, in which thedie bed is indicated generally by the numeral 24, and the co-acting dieplunger is indicated by the numeral 25. The numeral 28 designates thestock guide which is afiixed to one-end of the die mechanism in order toguide the strip material accurately into the die. The numerals 26 and2'7 are attached to scoring tools which are placed in each die in orderto score the strip so that it may be readily sheared transversely alongthe scored lines.

The next elements, 29 and 30, are the blanln'ng dies which operate tocut the strip to a desired length in a manner hereinbefore described.The element 37 is a U-shaped member, the legs of the U extending alongthe outer portion of the die so that the stripper plate 33 may beattached thereto, and thus be held up above the strip allowing the stripto move thereunder. It will thus be noted that the T-shaped stripperblock is suspended from the U-shaped member 3'7 in order that the blankmay pass under the stripper block and the supporting member 37 therefor.The stripper block is suspended in this manner so that a resilient gripmay be obtained upon the central longitudinal portion of the blank asthe various bending operations take place. The stripper block isT-shaped in form, and is secured to the U member by means of rivets 34and 35, or other securing means. Extending longitudinally with the diethe stripper plate has a raised portion 32 and a beveled portion 36. Thenumerals 40 and 41 indicate the stripper spring and pin, respectively,there being two of such pins and springs in order to allow the stripperplate to maintain its position without being forced downwardly by theaction of the plunger die. The first forming die is shown at 12,'thesecond forming die at 18, and'the final forming die at 22, all of saiddies being located in'the upper or plunger die.

The movable mandrel is shown at 46 having the horizontal core 44 aroundwhich a sleeve 21 is fitted. The mandrel is formed in the shape of an Land has its outermost horizontal portion reduced and screw threaded inorder to engage the nut 45, which holds the sleeve 21 on the mandrel.The vertical portion 46 of the movable mandrel is supported on apressure bar 4'7, which bar is forced upwardly by means of the spring 48which is held in the casing 49. The lowermost portion of the casing 49is vented at 50 in order that there will be no interference with theaction of the mandrel. Directly in line with the vertical portion of themandrel 46, two plunger pins 42 and 43 are situated for the purpose ofguiding the plunger die accurately down upon the bed. The plunger pins42 and-43 are also held in place by means of the pressure bar 47.

The operation of the machine is as follows:-

The strip 1 is fed into the machine between the stock guides 28 and isfirst scored between the scoring tools 26 and 27 in order to provideeasier shearing and also for the purpose of providing a smooth edgewhere the strip is sheared. The strip in this form has the shape shownby numeral 1, Fig. 1. 'It is then forced between the blanking dies 29and 30', which reduces the strip to the form shown by the numeral 2. Thenext step is shearing and bending the edges of the strip, both of saidoperations being simultaneous. Then the strip is formed into the shapeshown in Fig. 5, which is substantially elliptical, after which theelliptical blank is pushed onto the movable mandrel and acted upon bythe semicircular dies, which results in the bearing in its finalform. Upto the final forming stage in the operation, the central portion stillremains an integral part of the initial strip by reason of the stripperplate which prevents its severance therefrom. Immediately after theblank, in its elliptical form, is forced upon the movable mandrel theupper die or punch descends and cuts it off from the remainder of thestrip, and practically simultaneously with the cutting operation thebearing is completely formed into its cylindricalshape. The finallyformed bearing is ejected from the movable mandrel by means of themovement of the strip which occurs with each stroke of the die, therebeing a ratchet device or other means situated at the entrance of thedie which moves the strip a distance which is exactly equal to the widthof the bearing.

dies outwardly to a position between another set of dies.

Other forms may be employed embodying the features of my inventioninstead of the one here explained, change being made in the form orconstruction, provided the elements stated by any of the followingclaims or the equivalent of such stated elements be employed, whetherproduced by my preferred method or by others embodying steps equivalentto those stated in the following claims.

I therefore particularly point out and distinctly claim as myinvention:-

1. In an apparatus for the manufacture of bearings, the combination ofmeans for successively, blanking stock to a desired width, bending theedges of said blank, forming the blank into a substantially oval shape,severing said blank and finally forming the blank into a cylinder.

2. In an apparatus for the manufacture of bearings, the combination ofan L-shaped mandrel with means for successively, blanking stock to adesired with, bending the edges of said blank,

lower die having a self-contained L-shaped mandrel, and means forsuccessively operating upon sheet material to produce a cylindricalbearing 1,ao4,aa4 9 3 upon each meeting of the said upper and lowerstrip having an integral mid-portion in all except dies. the last step.

4. In a progressive die, the combination of a" 8. In an apparatus forthe manufacture oi bed, a plunger reciprocating with respect to said abed and a plunger reciprocating with sbed;stationarydiesmountedinsaidbedanddies respect to said bed, aplurality or sets of die mounted in said plunger, scoring means mountedmounted insaidbed andsaldplunser, an L in said bed and in said plunger,and a mandrel mandrel mounted under one set of said dies, and mounted insaid bed movable in a verticaidiretpl ie flnll tween mom Set Of Sa (11tion with res ect thereto. 9. In an apparatus ror the manufacture oi! l5. In an apparatus of the character described, a bed and ajllungerreciprocating with 3 means for transversely scoring a strip of metal.respect t sai b i p ur 0 Beta of di means for removing the edges of saidstrip,means mounted in said bed and said plunger, an L ior partiallyshearing said strip after said seorsh ped mandrel mounted under oneset0'!- said ing, means for bending the edges of said strip, 61631881111181l means for forming the strip into a substantially 13 an apparatus forthe mmulwtm 00 i ell ptical shape, means for severing the oval a bed andplunger recipmm with shaped blank from the strip, andmeans formally to amummy sets forming the blank into a cylindrical bearing. WM said Plum"..6. In a method of manufacturing bearings, the shaped mandrel mountedunder one steps which comprise blanking a strip of stock material to adesired width, partially Ming .seto! saiddies, said mandrel beingmovablewith the strip transversely, bending the edges "of said to Sam a strip,pressing thefbi'ank into a substantially elmgggggy gg m liptieal form,finally formingthe blank into acylc M igremom the m 'j 5 mo inder andejecting said cylinder. f mm mm Samar me 1 '1. In a method of formingcylindrical, means Bending m a? i am 3: the steps which consist-inscoring strip stock, means for forming the gz fiw blanking said stripstock-to desired length, paremptied shape means for savanna the "1 setoi said dies,- and projecting between another 5 tially shearing saidstrip 8. desired Width, Ollfl- Shaped blank from the strip, means for M105;

mg the edges Of said sheared blank, pressing said f ing the. blank t a lbearinl, blank into a su n ially l p a t rm, and and means for ejectingsaid finally formed blank. finally forming said blank into a cylinder,said WILLIAM H. 7

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